9780473000882 - The Bridge To Nowhere: The Ill-Fated Mangapurua Settlement (3 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Very Good. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Very Good. A very clean copy with a small pen name. The jacket is very good. 1993 Seventh edition. In 1917 the Mangapurua, one of the most remote valleys of the Upper Wanganui River was opened for settlement by discharged servicemen. Access to the area was difficult and although the settlers tried hard to establish farms they found this impossible, most had walked off the land by the start of WWII and received no compensation for their hard work. In 1942 the Government closed the access road forcing the last three families to leave. Today there is little left to show where these farms were, as the bush is rapidly closing in on the valley - but the bridge across the gorge built in 1936 - the bridge to nowhere still stands. This book tell the story of the settlement.

Soft cover. Zustand: Very Good. 1st Edition. First printing. Small inscription. The jacket has some wear.

Hardcover. Zustand: NF. Zustand des Schutzumschlags: NF. Photos, Maps, Plans etc. (illustrator). Seventh. Arthur Bates, a respected authority on the Wanganui River and its history, first published what is undoubtedly his most popular title -- "The Bridge to To Nowhere" -- in 1981, with repints in the three successive years, the fifth (with an index) in 1987 with this seventh edition printed in 1993. Topic of the book is the proposed farming settlement of Mangapurua. Situated in a long valler in the Upper reaches of the Wanganui River, the Mangapurua project was the last of the Government schemes to place demobilized soldiers from WWI on land they could transform for farming purposes --- on country that was remote, undevelopend, often ruggedl and mostly bush-clad. Access to the Valley was by road or river, Raetihi being the nearest township, 28 miles from the closest point of the settlement block of which 20 miles was a dray road, the remainder a horse track. With river-boats providing the other practical access, the tracks from the nearest landing to the settlement area was initially only horse tracks cut by the survey parties as they established the project alllotment lines. Returned soldiers planning to take-up the sections had to inspect them before a block was granted, The first allocations of land were made by the Land Board in 1917. Although the project appeared to get off to a good start, problems soon apppeared, mainly caused by ihe remote location, the access difficulties --- as the roading progressed these were often closed by slips and washouts. Transporting essential supplies, farm implements, tools and farming requirement and building materials was difficult and expensive. At the project peak about 40 ex-soldiers had taken up land, with many of them strangers to the bush, to farming and land clearance. The author notes that Mangapurua eventually became a "complete and utter failure." despite the courage, endurance and enthusiasm of the ex-soldiers and their families who "discovered they were chasing a rainbow of illustiona" and had to abandon their farms, without any compensation." The last two settler left in 1942 when the Government closed the "trecherous" access road. The great irony was that in 1936 a solid concrete bridge provided good access to the settlement, but all too late to save the project. All he natural problems encountered were multiplied by the Great Depression which caused many to walk off, leaving their dreams, livlihood and years of endeavour behind them."The Bridge To Nowhere" had no happy ending and today little remains of the settlement,-- except the bridge. In the years since, the settlemen failed the land has mainly regenerated to its original bush state and has been incorporated in th Whanganui National Park. Seventh edition from 1993, 173 pages including index, illustrated with approxc 50 b/w photos, several maps, plans, documentsns etc, with end-paper maps showing the originsl project plan and a location map defining notable fearures and development events .Brown hard covrs are NF with tiny fade bands fronr upper lower edges, the text block is also NF there are no inscriptions etc, The NF DJ has colour photo of birudge on front panel.